The modern construction era has brought about a tremendous expansion of the use of technology and computers in connection with designing and building structures of all types. Full size geometrically accurate 3D Building Information Modelling (BIM) represents one area that has fueled the expansion of the integration of computers into areas such as building design. In this regard, 3D BIM may be used to increase the productivity and capability of architects and draftsmen to virtually design full sized 3D buildings, address conflicts and resolutions during the design phase, and produce corresponding construction documents and engineering drawings that automatically update based on revisions in the 3D Model.
Production builders are one example of an industry segment that benefits from the advantages that can be offered by 3D BIM. In this regard, for example, production builders typically build a relatively large number of houses from a set of basic plans and then offer various options for buyers to choose from and incorporate into the final configuration of their home according to their budget and desires. Many production builders also have specialized sales staff that work with potential buyers to provide guidance for the presentation and selection of various options. The ability to use a visual selector of these various options and see how their choices affect the look of their new home is very attractive to home buyers who wish to customize their house to some degree. However, the provision of options also carries inherent risk for both profit or loss for builders. In this regard, for example, some options may be relatively simple to implement or at least may not present problems when actually building a structure, while other options may significantly complicate the building process and may lead to cost overruns that may severely damage the builder's bottom line. The greatest risk is complete and accurate communication of the resulting building parts based on these selected options to the downstream trade engineers, suppliers, installers, and CNC driven building fabricators. These prefabricated steel and wood building components, if generated incorrectly from the 3D BIM model, have to be modified or completely remanufactured with new parts being shipped to the construction site at tremendous expense and delay to the project. Such costly mistakes are avoided when the proper 3D configuration of all 3D building parts are assembled correctly based on the options selected by the building purchaser.